


not asking to be spotless (just asking for you)

by Trilies



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, M/M, Platonic Cuddling, Schrödinger's Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24910423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trilies/pseuds/Trilies
Summary: Chikusa and Ken have known each other all their lives. They've held onto each other exactly as long.
Relationships: Joushima Ken & Kakimoto Chikusa, Joushima Ken/Kakimoto Chikusa
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3
Collections: KHR Rare Pair Week 2020





	not asking to be spotless (just asking for you)

When they're six, they hold onto each other because there's not much else.   
  
The Estraneo don't give them a lot. There's very little room, down there in the labs, and almost all of them have to stay underground so that there's not a chance of them being seen by any of the Estraneo's many enemies. Rooms have to be used wisely, they're told, and that means, for the good of the Family, they as test subjects need to be crammed as many of them into a room as possible. Valuable resources can't be wasted on them, so it's best for them to live with the absolute bare minimum... and things like blankets or mattresses count as "valuable" resources. Things that should be reserved for the oh-so important adults who put them through torture after torture.   
  
In times like that, they often rely on one another for comfort, on the days that they can stomach contact with another human being at all. It's nothing fancy, and often there's always one person who has to take the floor or be against a wall... But it's something.   
  
They have long forgotten their names, and only know each other by their numbers: 14 and 49. It is nice, somehow, to be somehow matching just a little bit, and there is no reason to really latch onto any other children. There's no real reason for anything in their lives anymore. Why not base their decision to nap on one another by such a trivial thing as numbers? So they do that, the two of them, and watching as less and less children come back to the room.   
  
It is pure luck that the two of them, paired up with one another on simple chance, are the only two out of three who survive.   
  
When they're eight, they cuddle up against one another because they still don't have very much, but they have their freedom, and that's the most important thing of all. They also have what could arguably be called better clothes, and thick quilts or blankets that they still from place to place as they travel along with 69. Still, in the end, they find one another to be far better for comfort when it comes to going to sleep.   
  
Now they're not 14 and 49. Instead, they're "Al" and "Ciro", at least when they don't have any other specific names they want to use. Ciro, he likes how warm Al is. It matches his hair and his flame, he thinks, the warmth he radiates so regularly. Italy isn't really cold for most days out of the year. It's simply not that kind of climate. Yet the nights can get more than a little chilly, and they can't take any risks, the three of them. So he likes curling up against Al, able to stay warm and comfortable even when they have so little.   
  
In contrast, Al can find no real warmth out of Ciro, but that's honestly not that big of a deal breaker when he's burning hot 24/7 himself. Instead, Ciro is still, and quiet, and something about him doesn't set off every one of Al's senses. These days, that's gotten to be easier and easier to do. Most of the time, it's not a bad thing. His keen ears and sharp sense of smell have, on more than one occasion, realized an intruder was trying to hunt them down so that he and "Faustino" could turn the tables on him. But that's not nearly as much of a good thing when he's trying to sleep. Ciro is just... quiet. Al can go to sleep and stay that way, in a manner he can't do anywhere else, with anyone else. Not even Faustino.   
  
When they're thirteen, they've mostly grown out of the habit, or, at least, they've sort of grown out of the habit. When they were children, they could curl up around each other fairly easily, their tiny bodies made for it, tucked away in all sorts of nooks and crannies. Nowadays, they're much older, and their bodies have changed a lot. Neither of them are short, and they're not exactly underfed. (Mukuro is a questionable caregiver, if he can be called as much, but he does make sure all of them make sure they can regularly eat. Starved tools aren't the best ones.) Now that they're "Ken" and "Chikusa", well, the differences are many and distinct.   
  
Oh, Ken is still warm as a solar energy plant, and Chikusa is still as the grave no matter how many years have passed since they left behind a tomb full of slaughtered scientists and mafiosi. Some things never change, even as everything else does. But these days, Ken is muscular and solid. His Channels have always warped his body in a variety of ways, but it has only ever enhanced his base state. For him to be at his best, he's needed to gain a body that does best when it comes to close quarters combat, rushing and slamming and fighting. That's true even when he doesn't have any Channel in at all.   
  
This sturdiness is good in some ways, whenever Chikusa wants to just slump against him for example, but it's not exactly the best kind of body to _sleep_ against. They get into an argument about it, once, and Chikusa makes the mistake of saying that maybe it would be a better fit if Ken wasn't so short and, well, then that starts up an argument that's nearly one sided as Ken does his best to defend his honor or, at the very least, get the last word in that Chikusa is just an overly tall asshole.   
  
He's not even _wrong_ , is the thing. Chikusa _is_ overly tall. He frankly has more height than he does fat or muscle or energy. This means that most of him is bony and sharp, with no soft fat to rest along or firm muscles to prop another up. It's like trying to spoon a plastic skeleton in a middle schooler's science class. Being a quiet sleeping partner can really only do so much, although both of them make do regardless depending on the circumstances.   
  
Despite all of this, the bulk and the bones and the change, they still sometimes indulge, when they can. It's not all the time, no. Japan's summers can be vicious, after all, and those are times when body heat is just far too much to deal with when it's contending with the warmth of the _actual_ sun. But sometimes, when the evenings are cool, and the stars spread out far above them that still somehow manage to be the same... They lean against each other, and drift off.   
  
When they're in their twenties, they drift back into the habit fully, but... still different. Always still different, whenever they look back on their lives. Now, these days, they don't really go to sleep with one another because they need the other's warmth, or their stillness, or because there's nothing to do.   
  
Instead... They just do it because they want to. Because they have lived their whole lives together, and can think of no other life to live.   
  
Neither of them say it's love. Neither of them say it's anything else, either. All they know is that, when they curl in on one another, warm and safe and at an age neither of them really ever thought they'd reach... The world feels right. _They_ feel right.

**Author's Note:**

> Rain Day, Platonic Cuddling 
> 
> I love two feral Nasty Boys
> 
> i'm pretty sure if you asked chikusa or ken if their relationship was platonic or romantic, ken would ask if those are pizza toppings, and chikusa would just stare, unblinking, until he was left alone 
> 
> anyone trying to date either one of these absolute disasters would have to accept that they are sharing a boyfriend


End file.
